Writing in a personal capacity to share views, information and resources for teachers, trade unionists and campaigners in London - and beyond!

Sunday, 13 November 2011

Government makes £46 billion profit out of teachers' pensions!

Report from the November 10 meeting of the NUT Executive:

November's NUT Executive meeting endorsed the steps being taken by the Union to build up to November 30 - in what will be the biggest day of strike action in living memory.
We should take that action confident in the knowledge that our campaign - including the strike on June 30 and the lobby on October 26 - is beginning to shift the Government.

Their new ‘offer’ to unions, followed by Maude’s silly suggestion of a ‘15-minute’ strike, all show that they are worried about the effect on public consciousness of millions of us taking strike action on November 30. Far from agreeing to back-off as Maude suggests, when our opponent starts to wobble, that’s the time we need to push our hardest!
Their new proposals are a welcome sign of movement but, as will be explained in other union materials, nowhere near good enough. They still mean teachers will have to pay more, to get less pension and, for all but a few of us, to retire older. They still represent an unjust tax on public sector workers - not to pay for pensions but for the Government’s debts.In fact, the Executive were given first sight of NUT research that has gone back to the start of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme in 1923 and compared what’s been paid in by teachers to what’s been paid out. Adjusting for today’s prices, it shows that the UK government has made a staggering £46.4 billion surplus out of teachers’ pension contributions !!
The Executive welcomed the excellent 76% YES vote for strike action by the NAHT, which was just one more indication of the growing support for joint action. Now we have to work hard to encourage and explain to all teacher and support staff colleagues, in all the many unions who will be covered by strike ballots, why we all need to take strike action together:COUNTDOWN TO N30:

Complete the NUT Survey on the new ‘offer’ - look for an email from the National Union.

Help get our message to the public - many local NUT Associations will be organising meetings and stalls - please help if you can.

Call a school NUT meeting - or joint meeting - to get everyone ready for November 30.

Inform your Head and ask them to send a letter to parents saying the school will be closed so that staff can defend pensions.

Make plans for the day … unions may be arranging local assembly points and events before we all meet for the all-London March. Assemble: 12 noon, Lincolns Inn Fields, London WC1, (Holborn tube station).

NUT Executive news in brief:Rep of the Year Awards - have you got an outstanding school rep or officer in your division? Why not nominate them for the NUT awards - see details in the latest issue of ‘The Teacher’.Sixth Form Colleges ballot - the Executive agreed to proceed with a national ballot of 6FC members in our campaign against the pay freeze and funding cuts facing members in this sector.SEN Green Paper - the Executive agreed a motion for Conference warning how giving funds directly to parents for SEN is a mechanism to encourage privatisation and will mean big cuts in services.Maximum Classroom Temperature - we are working with other unions to demand a legal limit.Attacks on Employment Rights - the Government is threatening to weaken TUPE and double to two years the time you have to be employed before you can pursue a claim for unfair dismissal. London NUT - United Left - A number of NUT officers - including Alex Kenny and I - have been making plans to bring together everyone who wants to build the union’s campaigns in a London ‘United Left’. Look out for news of our first meeting, planned for December, which we will be calling around the vital question - “What next after November 30?”

Martin Powell-Davies

* Brought up as a socialist by parents who hungered for what is right * One adopted grandfather left me a double-barrelled name, the other his name on a 1926 General Strike black-list * Joined the Labour Party as a teenager, left it when it abandoned the values and traditions of so many who built it in the past * Given a comprehensive education at St.Andrew's, Leatherhead * First-class degree from King's College, Cambridge, for those who like that kind of thing * Secondary science teacher in London 1986-2015 * Lewisham NUT Secretary 1993-2015, organiser of many campaigns to defend teachers and education * Living in Sydenham since 1997, father of four who were all so well-supported by Sedgehill School * Member of the NUT National Executive 2010-15 * NUT London Regional Secretary 2016 - * Proud to have been name-checked by Gove for saying that his 'reforms' could make teaching unbearable * Member of the CWI, following its global struggles via http://www.socialistworld.net * Candidate for TUSC in Lewisham West & Penge, 2015 * Member of Penge CC, often a 'Middle Aged Man In Lycra' on Sundays